Senses Working Poll-vertime: The XTC Poll Nominations and Discussions thread

haha oh god there turned out to be like 16 reasons why it was a great song, none of which anyone else agreed with :D

Well, not all 16 at least

think i lost everyone at SIREN

Moulding's writing is my biggest problem with Nonsuch - My Bird Performs is fine, but his other three songs are sub-par. I like the solo on Smartest Monkeys though; that partly redeems it for me.

first 40-entry ballot received do I hear 50, 50...?

What would win a worst-of poll? Fruit Nut?

NO

Fruit Nut is great

i'm the man who murdered love, probably. not my worst but it drives everyone sick with loathing

I really dislike Church of Women

it's a gorgeous song, even if the lyrics are a biiiiiit embarrassing

like/love all these songs

see what I mean?

these poll results are going to enrage so many lol

The one about hairy backs

the bridge between the verse and the chorus is pretty, but yes it's more about the lyrics, esp as they put more bluntly something present in other XTC songs that I like more where this sentiment is maybe easier to ignore/go along with? xp

Nonsuch is their first record to be 50% clunkers, it was hella dispiriting at the time. But I mean fuck it my man Robyn has made so many 50% bad 50% awesome albums by this point.

I'm willing to relisten to everything except wasp star for this poll...

there is some great stuff on Wasp Star, as noted already

I did think, while clicking Submit, that someone will love Fruit Nut. Your [Angel Brain's) "less overlap on people's choices than most ilm polls" remark is holding up…

The utterly heart melting middle eight in Harvest Festival makes up for a lot of the awkward middle age music, but only just.

most of apple venus 1 is awesome

I like all of those Colin songs on the the last two albums about being a boring middle aged person, they are a nice contrast with stuff like Greenman and I Can't Own Her on Apple Venus vol 1 especially

harvest festival is one of partridge's best lyrics

boarded up is one of the best songs on wasp star and proof that colin could still do it when he got pissed off enough

xp ha, I wrote that before i saw MaresnNest's ref to 'awkward middle age music'

I think maybe soref and I have crossed swords about this before, but to me Moulding's quotidian preferences ruined the last couple of records. XTC music isn't supposed to be brown, in my humble.

I think In Another Life might be my favourite song on Wasp Star, maybe even above The Wheel and the Maypole

harvest festival is one of partridge's best lyrics

agree on this one

Partridge can be as equally middle agey, but at least he makes the effort to sound like a Move B-side while he does it.

I will retain my usual passive-aggressive, over compensating Mummer stan for this poll.

partridge wasn't all boxes of fireworks! cf 'the somnambulist'

self consciously quotidian? isn't there something in one of the books about Moulding finding the idea of being a 40 something rock musician horribly embarrassing, and the style he adopted on the last two records a result of him trying to find an age-appropiate schtick?

at this point, xtc are forgiven their sins, just wish dave gregory had been allowed to write a song (did he?)

a kind of mortal terror of coming across like Mick Jagger in the Dancing in the Street video xp

Moulding was moving in that direction as far back as 'Dying', maybe further

some other Fuzzy Warbles gems I forgot to nominate

Where Is Your Heart
Was a Yes
Everything
I Can't Tell What Truth is Anymore
Cherry in Your Tree
Candymine
Visit to the Doctor

(these last 3 part of an aborted "bubbleglam" album)

it was always in him

songs about smoking bans and civic demolition programmes in his early twenties i mean

xp

Did he write Smalltown and Washaway I wonder

I love 'Everything'

-former 11 O’Clock Show and RI:SE host Iain Lee
-Daniel 'sister of Charlotte Raven, husband of Julie Burchill' Raven

Are there any other celebrity XTC fans?

just makin sure everyone knows this one and remembers to vote for it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVU-clPr_kY

that should say 'brother of Charlotte Raven', obv

Iain Lee played bass in a Cardiacs-y band called Magnilda so no surprise there.

Οὖτις am I right in thinking we are just voting tracks, not tracks and albums?

i have an mp3 somewhere of Iain Lee interviewing Partridge and Moulding on his xfm show around the time Wasp Star came out, he is surprisingly bearable when not doing his comedy persona/talking about something he's enthusiastic about

Count me in with the Moulding-lost-it group. Yes, Andy's lyrics can be more than a bit silly but I can forgive him almost anything in the face of "Smartest Monkeys", "War Dance" and the godawful "Bungalow".

But "The Man Who Murdered Love" is absolutely, positively the worst thing XTC put their name on.

Andy's plain-spoken heart-on-sleeve approach to stuff like "Melt The Guns", "Omnibus" and "Dear God" works for me only because I share his sentiments.

oh shit, dear god is fucking abysmal lol

that's the worst one

About 3 years ago a friend of the band and rather infamous taper called H@ns D3 V3nt3 leaked a lot of really nice bootleg stuff.

He obviously used good taping equipment, but as well as live stuff he also leaked a lot of demo material, possibly all of which is now legally available. I remember getting a thing that was an unused AP soundtrack to some short film from the mid-eighties, will dig it out.

Trouble with the leaks, they were just big side-long files with no separation, so I'm not sure what's there exactly.

Οὖτις am I right in thinking we are just voting tracks, not tracks and albums?

I wasn't planning on an albums tally (we have button polls for that)

I think one ballot came with albums so far, but yeah I was only asking for tracks

I have a vague feeling that there might be a UK/US divide on the question whether Bungalow is fantastic or mot, but I may be totally wrong

Everybody listen to Red Brick Dream if they haven't heard it for a while, plz